Charges filed over Aratere grounding

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Maritime NZ has filed two health and safety charges against KiwiRail over its grounding of the Interislander ferry Aratere nearly a year ago.

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RNZ News

35 minutes ago

• RNZ News

Man suspected of seven burglaries, two car thefts and three crashes over 40 minutes

Photo: 123RF A man is facing multiple charges - suspected of being behind seven early morning burglaries, two car thefts and three crashes over just 40 minutes. Police said they were called to Udys Road in Pakuranga about 5.10am after someone reported a man breaking into their home and a physical confrontation. Nobody was hurt and the man left on foot. Police say minutes later two other reports came in also from Udys Road - one of a man trying to force their way into a home, and the other of a front door being smashed. Another call then came just after 5.30am reporting a man forcing entry into a home on Pakuranga Road with a knife. There was another call reporting a man kicking a door down and smashing things inside. That person's car car keys and vehicle were stolen, with the car crashing through a gate onto Pakuranga Road and then onto Udys Road. The car then crashed at an intersection. Another car was stolen on Reeves Street and pursued by police, but that car crashed too causing significant damage to a fence. A 44-year-old man was arrested after running off on foot and is due to appear in court. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

RNZ News

40 minutes ago

• RNZ News

Tenancy Tribunal orders landlord Jake Sim to pay tenant $3500 for unlawful entries, breaching his peace

By Tara Shaskey, Open Justice multimedia journalist, Taranaki of Photo: 123rf A man leaving his home for work at 6.30am went to jump into his work van but unexpectedly found his landlord sitting in it, drinking a handle of beer. The incidents were a part of a bigger tenancy issue in which Sim turned up at the property intoxicated and banging on the doors, and on other occasions, unlawfully let himself in. According to a recently released decision, the concerned tenant began setting "traps" to catch Sim in the act and also changed the locks, which, legally, he was not allowed to do. Eventually, because of Sim's "behaviour", the tenant, who can not be named, gave notice to end the tenancy late last year. Even moving out was an issue as the pair disagreed on what day the tenancy ended. The tenant said it was 17 November, while Sim said it was the 15th. Sim broke into the house on the 15th and was then blamed by the tenant for the alleged theft of $3000 and two rings after his gun safe was allegedly forced open. The tenant later complained to the Tenancy Tribunal, claiming compensation and exemplary damages for alleged unlawful entries by Sim and breaches of his right to quiet enjoyment of the premises. A recently released decision stated the tenancy started on 4 April 2022, and while the tenant paid rent from that date, he was in the process of selling his own home and did not completely move into the rental until around June 2022. The tenant told the tribunal that on 23 April that year, he went to the rental, the location of which was redacted from the decision, and found a treadmill set up and a TV mounted on a wall. A half-empty handle of an alcoholic drink had been left beside the treadmill. The tenant questioned Sim, and his reply was to the effect of "I can do what I like, I own the property". The tenant reiterated that he was paying rent and Sim could not enter whenever he liked. But sometime during the following week, the items were removed, again, without notice being given to enter the property. According to the decision, Sim, who lived near the rental, had not been invited over and the tenant, who took a photo of Sim in the van to use as evidence, did not expect him to be sitting in his vehicle. The tenant's partner told the tribunal that on other occasions, Sim turned up, often intoxicated, banging on the door and calling out to her. "She said that she stopped answering the door to him. She also gave evidence of the nature of his comments and conversation; she described it as inappropriate and made her feel uncomfortable." The tribunal accepted her evidence and found it was consistent with the tone of Sim's messaging. The decision stated that the tenant began "setting traps" when he was going away to see whether someone was entering the property. While the decision didn't detail the traps, it said that when the tenant found a closed bathroom door open on his return in April 2024, he approached Sim. He said Sim admitted to taking "a sneaky look at the bathroom". While Sim did not turn up to the tribunal hearing, he did provide written submissions in which he said he went into the house on that occasion to look at the shower drain, though there was no evidence of it being an emergency. Around mid-2024, the tenant changed the locks to the house. He acknowledged it was a breach of his obligations as a tenant but said he felt he had no other option. The tribunal ruled it would not order him to pay exemplary damages, given the context in which the locks were changed. As the tenancy came to an end and the tenant was in the process of moving out, Sim indicated he knew the locks had been changed. He texted the tenant saying, "I can always get in". Sim then said he had used a lock-picking kit to let himself in on November 14. Then, on November 15, when he believed the tenancy had ended, he climbed through a window. The tenant claimed that when he returned to the premises on November 16 to finish moving, his gun safe had been opened and $3000 in cash and two rings were gone. Messages from Sim showed that he denied opening the safe but said he had left the house unlocked. "I will admit to breaking in but you are not allowed to change the locks without informing the owner," he texted the tenant. "Can you give me an indication of what was taken and I'll personally pay it back." While the tenant sought to recover the cash from Sim, the tribunal was not satisfied there was enough evidence to prove the money and rings were removed from the safe. But it did find that the tenancy end date was 17 November and that Sim had entered the rental unlawfully on November 15 and four other occasions. He also "displayed a persistent, cavalier attitude to the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment of the premises", the tribunal ruled. He was ordered to pay the tenant, who was awarded name suppression, $2000 compensation and $1500 in damages. -This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .

RNZ News

3 hours ago

• RNZ News

Northland faces unsustainable court delays as homicide cases surge

By Shannon Pitman, multimedia journalist, Whangārei of Whangarei High and District Court. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon There's a well-known saying that justice delayed is justice denied. And in Northland, where the region is facing a growing number of homicides, the wheels of justice are getting increasingly slow. With trials now being set down for as far out as October 2027, the battle for limited resources and judicial time in the High Court at Whangārei is no longer just inconvenient - it is unsustainable. And, it's not a new problem. "I find this date to be unacceptably distant," Justice Timothy Brewer declared two years ago when the earliest available date for a murder trial was in 2026. "A trial of charges such as these should not be scheduled for trial further out than 12 to 15 months," he said at that hearing in 2024 before directing the court to find something earlier. Unfortunately, not a lot has changed since then. As cases pile up the question is no longer if something must change - but when, and at what cost. Defendants are spending long periods of time, often in custody, waiting for their cases to get to trial, while victims and their families struggle to move forward while the case is still before the court. Both sides are facing the reality of waiting years for justice to catch up in Northland. And, it's unlikely to get any better unless resourcing improves because the kinds of serious crimes that end up in the High Court have got worse this year. Northland recorded eight homicides last year, but the region has already exceeded that number, with nine homicides in the first six months of this year alone. According to data released by police under the Official Information Act, Northland had recorded the highest number of homicides up until 1 May, with Waikato next behind the region on five. Auckland had only two people charged with homicides for the same period, while Counties Manukau had three. In Northland, arrests have been made in all of the homicides - but that means there's nine new cases - and potential trials - that need to be worked into the High Court schedule. Several have already been locked in for 2027. Part of the problem is the fact Northland has just one courtroom - Courtroom Five at the Whangārei District Court - that is designated for High Court matters. But, there's no dedicated High Court judge and they are instead brought in from Auckland as required. So far in 2025, the High Court at Whangārei has had two murder trials scheduled, both relating to homicides that occurred in 2023, but neither ended up needing the full amount of time that was allocated. In the case of the Manuel brothers, scheduled for the first week of February, Samson Manuel pleaded guilty to the murder of Shayden Perkinson, on the morning their three-week trial was due to start, while his brother Bronson pleaded to a lesser charge. The High Court then remained largely empty for four weeks until the next trial commenced in March, involving Denise and Quinntinn Davis and their nephew Joshua Tana, who are all accused of murdering Euan Mackey in March 2024. They initially had a trial date allocated for April 2026, however, Justice Timothy Brewer directed the court to find an earlier date, saying the delay was unacceptable. Their trial was then brought forward and began on 15 March but was aborted in its second week. A new trial for Denise Davis, Quinntinn Davis and Tana has now been scheduled for April 2027, leaving defendants in custody and victims facing the prolonged wait to testify again. In total, the case could take three years and one month to reach trial. A trial falling over doesn't mean other matters scheduled for later on can always easily come forward. Justice Simon Moore, who retired from the High Court in 2024, told NZME one of his roles had been rostering judges and that was done 12 months in advance. Justice Moore said Whangārei sits on the Auckland circuit, meaning it relies on judges from Auckland.. When trials "fall over", the schedule can be left with holes that are only able to be filled by shorter hearings. "How do you fill a hole like that? You can't suddenly say to the parties 'we have got a judge here, got a court here, you need to come and we will start this four-week trial tomorrow'. The logistics of doing that are incredibly difficult." Justice Moore believes regional courthouses have not kept up with population growth and the complex nature of homicide cases was putting pressure on time constraints. "These regional courts are set up to deal with populations of the '50s and '60s where it just wasn't an issue. You could run a single court like that perfectly efficiently and it wasn't a problem. He said a standard homicide is usually three to four weeks long, with difficult and more complex cases running much longer than that. "You have a trial like that locked into Whangārei High Court and it pleads out, you are scurrying around looking for a stocking filler," Justice Moore said. "It's not the sort of problem we have in Auckland, Hamilton or Tauranga because we're able to draw people in. Whangārei is a bit more difficult." Justice Moore said work was being done to give trials in Northland a firm trial date as well as an earlier back-up trial date to fill in should something fall over. "But the average trial is four weeks long and you just can't stack them up, the High Court is just a different beast to manage." One option being offered for Northland-based trials is a relocation to Auckland. However, defence lawyer Sumudu Thode said a change of location is unfair to all, with legal aid ultimately footing the bill. "We've got no other remedy than waiting for two years. It's not fair to put all of them to that inconvenience. They're also not being tried by members of their community, they're being tried by members of an Auckland community," Thode said. Thode raised another concern. In one of her cases, Thode's client - facing his third strike warning - was charged with a firearms offence, which, due to legal requirements of the three-strikes law, must be heard in the High Court. He was in custody for two years awaiting a jury trial, which resulted in a hung verdict. He then was placed back into custody and granted bail after two years and 10 months and it was another six months until his retrial got off the ground. "These are non life-imprisonment offences. This is not a Covid issue, this is not because there has been a ton of murders, these are issues that have been happening for a while," Thode said. Thode said in her experience, when earlier dates are offered, all parties generally prioritise High Court cases to ensure they can go ahead. "The victims, the whānau, they want these to continue, police officers are generally available or make themselves available." A sexual violence victim who had to give evidence in the High Court at Whangārei for a second time after the defendant was granted a retrial told NZME the long wait sent her life into turmoil. The case began its court journey in 2019, and she said, after testifying in 2022, she felt relieved to finally share her story. But when the defendant appealed his conviction and a retrial was granted three years later, everything unravelled. "No one told me this could happen and it was a huge shock. I had a full breakdown." To prepare to give evidence for the second time in three years, she had to pause therapy, ensuring painful memories remained intact for court. She said an earlier retrial date could have made things easier but instead they were told there were no gaps in the calendar for another two years. "If it had happened sooner, I could have moved on. Instead, it affected my family, my job, and my mental health." Adding to her stress was the knowledge that her perpetrator was out on bail, while the court case - now stretching into its sixth year - drags on. "It's not just victims or witnesses who feel the anxiety - it's their families, workplaces, and livelihoods. I wouldn't wish it on anyone," she said. A spokesperson for the office of the Chief Justice said Whangārei's reliance on a single courtroom was impacting the ability to schedule trials promptly. The spokesperson said Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann has raised the delays in Whangārei with the Minister of Justice on previous occasions and briefed the Attorney-General Dame Judith Collins back in 2019. In the brief, Chief Justice Winkelmann specifically noted Whangārei and Rotorua were facing wait times nearly 12 months longer than those in main centres, solely because of the lack of courtroom availability. Chief High Court Justice Sally Fitzgerald also said in a statement issued to NZME that the wait times are problematic. "It is concerning that people in Northland are sometimes waiting considerably longer than court participants in other areas to have these serious matters resolved in court. "We know that court delays are very difficult for the people concerned - for the victims and their families, for the defendant and their families," Fitzgerald said. The office of the Chief Justice said when the previous murder trials were resolved in Whangārei earlier this year, the court was utilised. "During the remaining available weeks, action was taken to ensure that other, shorter matters continued to be heard, and included an Associate Judge and an Auckland-based Judge sitting in Whangārei during that time," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said that with adequate notice, trials scheduled for 2027 may be able to be brought forward if earlier trials resolve. Minister for Justice Paul Goldsmith told NZME that waiting years for a trial to start is far too long and announced in Budget 2025 that $246 million will be invested over four years to improve court timeliness. "Justice delayed is justice denied. Waiting months or years for a case to be resolved only adds to the frustration and trauma for victims and, indeed, all court participants," Goldsmith says. "This funding will support the ongoing operation of specialist courts, tribunals, the District Court, senior courts, the Coroners Court, and the legal aid system." Homicide cases for 2025 currently before the court Jan 29: Brooklyn Jenkins, 20, charged with the murder of his brother, Kyle Jenkins, had his trial scheduled for March 2026. Feb 24: Aitua Puriri was charged with the manslaughter of his 3-year-old nephew, Reign Puriri in Whangārei, and had his trial set for July 2027. Feb 27: Duwaine Johnstone was charged with the murder of mother of three, Yvonne Chapman, in Whangārei, and had a trial allocated for February 2027. Mar 15: A man, whose name is suppressed, was charged with the murder of 62-year-old Toby Mike Adams in Whangārei, and had his trial date set for July 5, 2027. Mar 15: A man, whose name is suppressed, was charged with the murder of Estene Rapatini in Kaikohe, and had his trial scheduled for August 2027. Apr 12: Lewis Edmonds was charged with the murder of Archibald McKenzie in Kerikeri, and had his trial scheduled for October 2027. May 9: A 26-year-old, whose name is suppressed, was charged with the murder of Geoffrey Ware in Parakāo and had his trial scheduled for early July 2027. May 21: Drummond Leaf was charged with the murder of 3-year-old Catalya Remana Tangimetua Pepene and has a trial date scheduled for February 2027. May 21: A man whose name is suppressed has appeared in court charged with the murder of Daniel Hepehi in Horeke. - This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .